ST. ANN, Mo.—People who need to vote absentee by mail in the November 5 general election have until Wednesday at 5 p.m. to request a ballot, but election officials are bluntly telling the public not to waste any time getting it back in, as concerns have grown in recent months over the U.S. Postal Service’s ability to process election-related mail in a timely fashion.

Last month, a group of Republican members of Congress from Missouri, including Ann Wagner, Blaine Luetkemeyer, Jason Smith and Sam Graves wrote to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to voice concerns about unreliable mail service in the eastern part of the state, including issues delivering absentee ballots.

That letter came on the same day that the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors also wrote a letter, saying that mailed primary ballots that were postmarked on time were received by local election offices days after the deadline to be counted. They also noted that properly addressed election mail was being returned to them as undeliverable, a problem that could automatically send voters to inactive status through no fault of their own, potentially creating chaos when those voters show up to cast a ballot.

At a news conference this week to promote early no-excuse absentee voting, which just began Tuesday in Missouri, St. Louis County Democratic Director of Elections Eric Fey said anyone who still has an absentee ballot within 10 days of Nov. 5 should consider hand-delivering it to election authorities, or have a family member within two degrees of separation do it for them.

“Do not procrastinate. As somebody who has a tendency to do that from time to time, it will not be to your benefit to hold onto that ballot any longer than you have to,” he said. Absentee ballots need to be in the custody of election officials by 7 p.m. on Nov. 5